Race-neutral admission approaches: Challenges and opportunities for medical schools

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger affirmed the use of narrowly tailored, race-conscious admission programs by institutions of higher education that find that the benefits derived from diversity rise to a compelling interest. The rulings also required institutions that use race-conscious admission programs to explore whether the results of such programs could be met through race-neutral alternatives. In this article, the authors review relevant literature in the context of medical education and summarize the existing information about race-neutral alternatives and the challenges and opportunities in implementing them, with the goal of encouraging further research that will inform medical school admission policies. The authors argue that although undergraduate and graduate institutions across the nation are pursuing the goal of diversity within the guidelines set forth by the Court, there is too little known about how race-neutral alternatives to race-conscious admission policies can be effective in promoting diversity. They conclude that although certain approaches show promise, medical schools--as they continue to employ race-conscious admission policies to achieve the benefits of diversity--must take advantage of their compliance with the Court's decision to investigate whether race-neutral approaches can contribute to the diversity of medical school classes.